


the greatest things you'll ever know (are invisible)

by wordswithdragons



Series: sometimes a family is [2]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, found family feels for all, i will single handedly make you care about this brotp i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswithdragons/pseuds/wordswithdragons
Summary: Ellis and Lujanne, over the years.
Relationships: Ava & Ellis (The Dragon Prince), Ellis & Lujanne (The Dragon Prince), Ellis/Ezran (The Dragon Prince)
Series: sometimes a family is [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690177
Comments: 12
Kudos: 95





	the greatest things you'll ever know (are invisible)

i.

The first time they meet, Ellis is nine and Lujanne is well—old enough to know you don't ask a lady her age, thank you very much. The child is brave and covered in furs, a wolf pup clutched in her arms. Lujanne only gives herself a moment to wonder at how the child got through all her illusions and horrors that have made plenty of grown adults turn back screaming. Then she notices the way the girl holds the pup closer.

Over the years, Lujanne has learned many things about humans. Mostly how to freak their beans out, but other things too. The town below her Caldera is small, simple, weathered by fierce winters. Many mouths to feed. Only a few venture up the Caldera in search of food, and she's more prone to let them pass; they never usually go past the berry bushes near the mountain base. Sometimes young teens will dare one another to scramble upwards and she doesn't mind giving them a good scare. Nip their arrogance or fool-hardiness in the bud sooner rather than later.

She learns that humans have families like elves do, and friends. Like she did.

She always knew being the guardian of the Moon Nexus was as lonely as it was honourable. It has been a long time since she has known—or felt—love. (Husbands drop like flies, but they leave instead of die, usually.)

But she can still recognize when she sees it.

So she gives the wolf a false leg and disappears. It's all she can do and all she thinks needs to be done. The girl and the pup will take care of each other. She knows it.

(And Garlaf willing, the little girl will never have to trek up the Caldera again.)

ii.

When Lujanne lands, she finds three humans, an elf, a wolf, some sort of frog (she thinks?) and a dragon's egg. The moonshadow elf is young and vaguely familiar—her own people, back again, if only for a moment; she heard something in the wind that the Dragon Queen had sent a team of assassins, but they hadn't passed through the Nexus on their way—and the boys stand uneven, one scarfed, one younger, both desperate.

The human girl is familiar, if a little older. Even more sure of herself. And her wolf has certainly gotten much bigger, but Lujanne can still see through her own magic. (Being unable to fool yourself is an important part of being a moon mage, she has found). Each have thrived the way she thought they would. But yet again, they need help—only this time, she cannot give it.

Then the older boy smashes the primal stone and as the baby dragon—the miracle—grows adjusted to what it means to exist, Lujanne gets the full story. The elf and boys take turns explaining a story so fantastical and harried, of betrayal and choices and second chances, Lujanne might not be able to believe it if the proof wasn't standing right in front of her. The girl listens on as well and it occurs that perhaps this is her first time hearing the full tale, too.

It also becomes clear that these children, for that's what they are, are absolutely exhausted. "I'll take you back to my dwelling," she says. "You can sleep and eat there."

The girl eases the younger boy onto her wolf—Ava, one of the few names Lujanne has been able to collect—for the last leg up the Caldera. The older boy and Rayla (the other name) linger behind, talking quietly, the dragonling curled up in the boy's arms. Ava trots beside Lujanne as they climb up the remaining mountain paths. Already the world has changed so much in the last 24 hours... the Dragon Prince, _alive_...

"I don't think we've ever been properly introduced," the girl says brightly. Like speaking with a secret moon mage is a normal interaction—let alone a civil one between an elf and a human. "I'm Ellis."

But Lujanne is nothing if not polite and she smiles. "It's nice to meet you Ellis."

"Thank you again for saving Ava." The little girl bends down and wraps her arms loosely around the wolf's wide neck, the younger boy jarred only slightly before she straights up again. "I didn't get to say so last time."

"I think you saved her more than I did," Lujanne reveals.

Ellis hums. "Either way, thank you... you were the one person who believed the same thing I did."

"You are unusual among humans." For her bravery and her love. Lujanne looks back at the two boys. But maybe not unique. Maybe even more is changing.

"Oh, you're right," Ellis says with a tiny gasp. "I forgot my manners—I still don't know your name."

It has been a long time, decades, since someone has asked for her name. Since she has heard it said out loud by anything other than her own voice or illusions. She thinks perhaps she said it before, but in all the chaos, in all that's happened, she can't blame the child for forgetting.

"My name is Lujanne," she says.

Ellis inclines her head and sticks out a mittened hand. "It's nice to meet you, Lujanne," she says, exceedingly politely, but her smile is genuine.

Lujanne shakes it. It is very nice indeed.

iii.

Even once the trio leaves, Ellis stays. They wait out the young jock and his witchy sister, who leave the Nexus quickly and quietly. Glad to be rid of them, Lujanne sets about putting up new enchantments and strengthening old ones. She doesn't want them getting back in.

She cups Ellis' face in her hands once the young girl retreats, gives her and Ava warm food and drink (neither care about grubs) and has them stay one more night. "Then you really should get home," she says. Her parents must be worried. Ellis nods sleepily and Lujanne tucks her in before going back to her own bedroom. It will be strange to have the Nexus totally silent, after so much noise and excitement the past five days.

In the morning, Lujanne gives Ellis one last grub breakfast (one less meal for her parents to provide) and then waves her and Ava off. Lujanne watches them bound down the stone paths of the Nexus, to the cusp of the Caldera itself, and then into the twisting black trees beyond. Well. That's that, then. Back to business as usual. Lujanne trims the hedges. Double checks the Nexus to make sure nothing has been taken, corrupted, or activated. Polishes her gong and writes down any important notes in the day. She restarts some old illusions. Collects grubs. Plays chess against herself. Quiet, peaceful, and—

"Lujanne!" A loud, cheerful voice. "Lujanne! Where could she be, Ava?"

It takes a few seconds for Lujanne to uncross her legs from her meditation, and peer around one of the corners to find Ellis in the main centre of the living grove, by the benches. Ellis lights up when she sees her, though. Starts chatting excitedly about her parents, and Ava, and Ezran, and what their three new young friends may be up to now with the Dragon Prince, as though this is all perfectly normal, and—

Lujanne mostly listens, unsure of what to say. She hadn't expected this.

But sure enough, every three days or so, Ellis comes back. Usually atop Ava, but not always, and perpetually cheerful. Lujanne supposes the Caldera isn't scary at all now that Ellis knows the monsters are just illusions, but the climb is still difficult and a part of Lujanne worries. What if something happens to her? Eventually Lujanne marches the child down the mountain and shows her safest path, in between the rocks and trees and cliff-sides. Ellis grins at her.

"I appreciate the gesture," she says, "but we sort of liked the challenge." Pats her wolf's head, cooing, "Didn't we Ava?" and gets a joyful bark in reply.

Perhaps Ellis is exactly the sort of child who would befriend a recluse, formidable moon mage, Lujanne re-evaluates. The next time Ellis comes back, Lujanne settles into it. Into the routine.

She and Ellis have tea at the stone breakfast table. She shows off her knowledge of the Nexus and the Nexus itself. Ellis' eyes grow as wide and bright as shiny saucers whenever Lujanne casts a spell, so if she begins to use magic a bit more than she ordinarily would... no need for anyone to know. Ava and Phoe-Phoe learn how to play with one another, occasionally tumbling in the grass. Lujanne only ever lets Ellis stay for two nights and then ushers her back home, not wanting to worry her parents, but...

It's nice, all things considered. Lujanne thinks she could get used to this.

iv.

Lujanne leaves Ellis in charge of the Moon Nexus when she leaves for Katolis. "I shouldn't be gone any longer than a week," she says. "Are you sure you don't mind being here so long?"

Ellis nods, round face looking as determined as it possibly can. "I'll be fine," she swears. "I'll take good care of it." Ava barks beside her as though in agreement, but despite it, Lujanne hesitates.

She hasn't left the Nexus— _really_ left it (just going down the Caldera a bit doesn't count)—in _decades_. Nor has anyone been here without her also there, on the exceedingly rare times she's had visitors beyond the past past couple of weeks with Rayla and the princes and Ellis. Maybe two in forty years. Leaving it will feel strange.

But more than that, she worries others may appear while she's gone. She's strengthened the illusionist charms so the monsters will appear real for a good couple of weeks, if she's gone that long, and even if a human (like Ellis, even) pushed on, all they would find would be a little human girl and a big protective wolf. But if the princes' old friends come back again... Lujanne thinks of how the girl garbed in black—Claudia?—was looking around the Nexus and later used Dark Magic. If Claudia led her father or other humans here, Ellis could be in danger.

But they'd received the brother's letter (Soren, Ellis had remembered) and both of them had agreed that helping Ezran is the most important thing.

"Wish he'd come back to say hi on his way home," Ellis reflected before becoming as determined as she was now, that Phoe-Phoe was the young king's best option at reaching Xadia and his brother safely.

"Callum won't let anything happen to his brother," she'd said, and Lujanne thought back on the deep concern Rayla had shown for both boys. The young elf wouldn't let anything happen them either. So the plan was settled.

"Take care, Ellis," Lujanne says now, wrapping the little girl up in one more hug. Ellis hugs back tightly.

"Have fun while you're gone," she says. "We'll be here once you're back."

It occurs to Lujanne that not only is she leaving the Nexus for the first time in forever, but that she'll have someone to come home to for the first time since the last of her husbands left her, decades ago too. It's nice, to have more than just her own illusion. To have something real.

Lujanne smiles. "I know."

v.

Lujanne watches the young jock carefully once the war is over. On one four-fingered hand, she trusts him because he helped get Ezran out of the castle safely. On the other, she remembers him as an enemy here first—swinging at Ellis—and that the sister who remains lost may come back to desecrate the Nexus more permanently one day. She hadn't when Ellis was here alone—Lujanne had eagerly wrapped the young girl up in her arms upon their reunion—but that doesn't mean it won't still happen.

It is a joy to see Ezran, however, even if his brother and Rayla have stayed behind in Xadia. Soren says that they're 'a thing' now. Lujanne thinks back on their interactions at the Nexus and Rayla's conversation with her— _Strong relationships need honesty_ —and well, she can't say she's surprised.

Ezran already seemed so changed when she saw him to give away Phoe-Phoe, but he's changed even more now, as he gifts her the feather with steady hands and older eyes. "I expect she gave you quite a fright," Lujanne says, a hand on his shoulder.

"That's one way of putting in," Ezran admits with a slight smile, Soren hovering close to his side.

Lujanne doesn't know the full details of all that happened—but she knows the famed General Amaya by sight, Katolis' travelling party apparently much smaller than it used to be, even with the army of Duren. The elves of Lux Aurea and their new queen, Janai, have already gone home, but the general says they'll keep in touch. (Lujanne has been around long enough, it seems, to know when two romances are blooming).

However much Ezran and the handsome oaf have changed, though, Lujanne knows not everything has. Each still play games with Ava and Ellis when they stop to rest at the Moon Nexus for a day, human troops spread out over her benches and dwellings. The back dwellings of the Nexus are used for the monsters, although Lujanne does not know if there is magic that can reverse such a dark penetration.

Ezran even beckons Queen Aanya of Duren over, although she seems a tad unsure at how to play, even a simple game like tag. Ellis throws an arm around her shoulders, all formality gone. "Come on!" she says, it'll be fun. Not worried at all about losing her spot as Ezran's primary playmate, possibly.

Aanya tires quickly though, not of boredom, but likely of the intense travelling it's taken to get to the Storm Spire from Duren—and apparently of surviving an assassination attempt—and returns to her advisors and to speak with General Amaya, trailed by her interpreter. Lujanne was glad to see it all the same, though; the young rulers could use a friend in one another, especially after everything they've been through.

Ezran and Ellis don't seem to be bored at all, as enamoured with each other's company and games as they were a few weeks ago at the Nexus. Even knowing that Ezran is her king doesn't seem to have fazed Ellis at all, as little as finding out her miracle healer was an elf had been. It'll do her, and them, good in the long run.

If things go the way Lujanne thinks they might.

(Because maybe, just maybe, she's seeing three.)

vi.

Callum helps Ellis connect to the moon arcanum.

It's shortly after he's conducted his own training at the Nexus, Lujanne one of his teachers as the borders have been opened and moon mages and druids alike have returned to their ancestral dwelling. There's only five, but it's still more people than she's had in years, and Ellis is Lujanne's solid ground as she adjusts to having normal conversations and mealtimes and the like again.

Ellis is old enough at fifteen to live at the Nexus now for half the week or more, her parents sometimes daring to visit. Lujanne likes the couple well enough—goodnatured, hardworking; like their daughter—even if they still don't quite know what to make of her. More villagers carve their way up the Caldera now, the illusions and 'monsters' gone. It leaves Lujanne open to people in a way she hasn't been in a very, very long time.

In some ways it's a relief when Callum arrives, the boy older too—taller and a master at Sky, his sights set on another arcanum, and an engagement ring on his finger. Rayla sends him letters from the Spire. But he still remembers when Lujanne was kooky and alone and eating nothing but grubs magicked to be food, and the familiarity—the glimpse of the past—is sort of nice to hold onto.

Ellis still eats grubs with her, when she's not tailing Callum while he begins his training, moonlight swelling in his veins.

"Wouldn't you rather connect to Earth?" he asks one day in the Moon henge. Lujanne sits on a rock and corrects the drawing of his runes when she needs to, which isn't often, but this is still one of the more deserted areas of the Nexus now.

Ellis stands with her hands on her hips, two long braids of dark hair swinging over her shoulders. When she's not at the Nexus she's training as an apprentice to the village veterinarian, and it has been a joy to watch her grow into her own, as a burgeoning young woman. "As cool as it would be to maybe be able to talk to Ava like Ez," she says smartly, the young king making sure to write her (more often) and visit (less often) when he can, Lujanne knows, "I've made my choice. I know what arcanum I want."

(Later, Ellis will become one of the first humans besides Callum able to connect to two arcanum—which, after further research, seems to be most people's limit—and the other is indeed Earth.)

For now, Ellis just says, "I've always felt a connection to the Moon," and throws Lujanne a cheeky, knowing grin.

The old woman's chest warms as she returns it. When Callum leaves a few months later, to continue his training elsewhere, Ellis stays on as her apprentice. She draws runes quick and fast and memorizes incantations almost as speedily. Enjoys cloaking herself to try and sneak up on her wolf, who can always sniff her out anyway. Study breaks usually include either helping Lujanne tend to the gardens or playing chess by the stone tables. She's happy here, Lujanne knows.

But when she turns sixteen the following February and Lujanne sees restless young adulthood in her, the same that drove her in her own youth to want to leave Xadia and spy on the strange ways of mysterious sounding humans, that led her to being Guardian of the Nexus in the first place.

So when Ellis comes to her, hands fumbling and tone just a little nervous, as she explains that the old veterinarian in the castle has retired and that Ezran has offered her the job, Lujanne takes her by the shoulders, smiles, and then helps her pack her bags. "Go," she says.

It only hurts a little to let go, when Ellis finally pulls away from their hug.

vii.

That being said, Ellis is good about writing and visiting too. Her letters come regularly, once every Friday, carried by ravens that drop some off at her parents' home before flying up the Caldera. Phoe-Phoe, now back to the size she was before she burst into flame at the foot of Avizandum, ruffles her feathers and seems a bit peeved at the competition, but the Katolian ravens never stay for long. Sometimes, Lujanne wonders if Ellis tells her mother and father and her the same sorts of things, or if she divvies it up among them. Lujanne likes to think she's a bit more relaxed than the human couple. That Ellis can tell her fun things that perhaps parents would disapprove of.

Either way, Ellis tells her much. About the wondrous castle and surrounding town ("I've never seen or been anywhere so big!"), the friendly servants ("They were a bit nervous around Ava at first but now all of them love to give her belly rubs, so I think we're settling in just fine"), her continuing of her magical studies, Soren's antics, and of course, Ezran's court politics. The Earthblood lords seem to be prickly in particular and Lujanne writes very unladylike things in advice, like saying Ellis should tell Ezran where they can stick their swords and antlers. Lujanne can picture Ellis laughing on the other side of the parchment, even if the advice doesn't seem to ever be taken.

One thing that Lujanne notices most of all about Ellis' letters, however, is how she mentions Ezran. She always seems to talk about him near the end, as though she's putting it off—as though she doesn't want to talk about him _too_ much—so on one of her monthly visits, Lujanne bothers to ask, "And how is Ezran? You two seem to have gotten closer."

Ellis pauses as they walk down one of the stone pathways. She's cut her hair to something almost short. It suits her and makes her look closer to her age, now nearing seventeen. "We have," Ellis says. "He's a really good friend."

" _Just_ friends?"

Then Ellis grins, and it says everything. Knowing and patient and brimming with awareness. "For now."

Because Ezran is the king, with many duties to attend to, and courting anyone would be a serious matter, nearly a marriage proposal in and of itself. Ellis recounts the story to her a few years later, of how Ezran had asked her to a walk in the gardens, asked if he could court her properly, and Ellis had only responded with bright eyes and a cheeky, "I thought we already were?"

Three years later, Lujanne receives an invitation in the mail. She has attended many weddings, six of which her own, but Ezran and Ellis' is by far her favourite.

viii.

Ellis moves from castle veterinarian to queen with apparent ease. When she turns twenty-four, a baby girl is born, named for both of Ezran's parents. The last deaths necessary in the war in order to end it, the rest born of a cycle that no longer had to perpetrated. Her visits understandably lessen and then pick up again soon.

Ellis no longer answers questions without thinking, although her impulsiveness, her bravery and go-getter attitude hasn't left. Life has tempered her, not tamed her. Marriage and magehood, queendom and motherhood, too, but all suit her. None of her relatively newfound power has gone to her head. She wears her hair long again, pulled back in buns not unlike Lujanne's. She still goes back to her small town to visit her family regularly, every three months, and stops by the Nexus.

Lujanne finds the Nexus busy these days more often than not, anyway. Moon rituals in full swing. New mages arriving every day, the process of reintegrating magic to the West having finally begun. If Ellis visited more often, it may even be hard to make time for it. (Although Lujanne knows she would.)

She knows just how much things have changed when Ellis sends her a tearstained letter on the cusp of twenty-eight. Lujanne arrives at the castle a week later and wraps her arms around her.

Wolves do not live forever. The thing that stings the most, Ellis says, besides the loss of her best friend, is that Harrai at four years old does not understand where the furry, fluffy friend she toddled beside has gone. Lujanne stays for another week, until Ellis shoos her off.

"Are you _sure_?" she asks. She's cried her fair share over Ava. The old thing was a good creature, strong and kind, and what brought them together what feels like a lifetime ago.

"The Nexus needs you," Ellis insists, wiping at her face. Ezran has been her other pillar of support lately and Lujanne knows he will pick up the slack. "I'll be alright."

So Lujanne goes, and then has one of her mages run an errand. Gifts the palace their shadowpaw kit—those things live for decades, with the proper care, and she knows that Ellis will provide. She gets a thank you note in response and knows it's for an emotion that words can't quite express.

Avi is born that winter, named partially in Ava's honour, even if he has the blue eyes of his father and his mother's loudness. Then Cora, another two years later.

Once the children have lessons and nannies, here and there, Ellis visits more often. Cora is four and asking all sorts of questions, apparently. New phases of life are always beginning and throwing old ones into new light, greater understanding.

For example: it is as Lujanne sips tea across the stone table, chatting and laughing when the young woman in front of her—now mid-thirties, then early forties—that a long held truth rises to the forefront, at least in Lujanne's heart. But instead of voicing it, she asks, "How is the wee thing?" and Ellis' thoughtful pause afterwards is customary. Gives Lujanne time to collect herself, just a little, as she waits.

"Just starting to notice the moon," Ellis replies and then launches into more customary answers and anecdotal milestones. A mother's fondness colours her voice and upturns her eyes, crinkling in a smile.

None of her marriages ever amounted in children, but looking at Ellis, Lujanne thinks she just might understand.

ix.

Lujanne is _old_ when she picks the next guardian of the Moon Nexus. There is not the same need for one—decades have passed since the end of either war—as elves and humans travel freely between the borders. Moon mages and druids alike have returned to the Nexus, carrying on their ancestors' traditions, helping her tend to the gardens and have some real food growing, rather than just grubs. Lujanne thinks perhaps the next one may be the last. A ceremonial send off before the position is disbanded entirely, or kept as purely symbolic.

Still, it is Lujanne's job to pick the next one from her candidates. Ellis springs to mind, but the human is getting up there herself, in her sixties, and is happy at her castle with her husband and burgeoning grandchildren. Other than that, Lujanne is rather stumped. So although Lujanne has tried not to ask for too many favours over the years—Ellis already puts in more than enough elbow grease in always being the one to visit, the trip a three day one by boat or horse—she sends the queen a request for a visit.

 _I need help choosing the next guardian_ , she writes. It takes three days to get Ellis' reply: _I am already on my way_.

They walk along the gardens, stopping at the stone table for tea the way they usually would. Ellis' hair is streaked grey, wrinkles forming at her youthful eyes. Lujanne asks about the children, not that Ellis needs much prodding. "Avi is finally home for good, content at age thirty-five," she chortles, "with being connected to two arcanum like his mother; perhaps he'll settle down now." They coo over the photo of Harrai's firstborn daughter, sketched by her Uncle Callum. "He and Rayla visited for the birth—they're back home in the Silvergrove now, that was a few months ago, but—" Ellis closes her eyes as the wind, warm for once this time of year, washes over her face. "I'm happy, Lujanne. I'm content."

It fills Lujanne's heart with more warmth than she can say. "I'm glad," she murmurs.

Ellis turns to her then, eyes wide and kind. "And I want the same for you."

Lujanne can tell there's something else lying underneath the other woman's tongue, but Ellis doesn't unfurl it, and Lujanne has always been one to let people keep their secrets until they are good and ready. "Help me pick a guardian, then."

They go look at each of the mages and druids at the Nexus, lingering on one whose particularly talented, but older than Lujanne, which kind of defeats the point. Eventually, though, Ellis propositions a young, half-human, half-Moonshadow elf named Luka, with snow white hair and rounded ears. He has what's been labelled a dual arcanum: born with a weakened primal but strengthened by also forging a manual connection. He's friendly and young, in his early thirties, and has an eccentric streak that makes them both fond.

"You chose well," Ellis says, and Lujanne wrinkles her nose at her, as they settle down on a bench. As though Ellis isn't also complimenting her own choice.

"Yes," says Lujanne, unwilling to bite. "I couldn't have done it without you."

Ellis softens. Folds hands with age spots beginning to blemish the skin over her knees. "What will you do now that you're no longer the guardian?" she asks.

Lujanne hasn't spent much time pondering the question herself. There's little point to it. "I though I would just stay here. I've dedicated my life to this place."

Her friend looks up at her, her gaze intent. Searching. "And it is home?"

Lujanne pauses, then smiles, almost dryly. "Strangely, maybe less so since other people started showing up," she admits.

Ellis places a hand on her arm. "Well, it may be even more crowded," she begins, "but if you wanted to come back to the palace... be a great-grandmother. If you wanted."

Her throat closes up. Tears unexpectedly prick at her eyes. "Ah, well—" She flounders, ever so slightly, too touched for words, initially. And then it occurs to her, looking at the girl now woman beside her, a burgeoning grandmother in her own right, Lujanne knows there is something else she has dedicated her life to, just as much as the Nexus. She places a wrinkled hand over Ellis'.

"I would like that very much," she whispers, and that is that.

x.

Great-grandma Lujanne lives to the ripe old age of one-hundred-and-twenty. The kids at the palace call her Moon Granny, or Lu, or a variety of other fond nicknames and titles. The new queen and her children calls her Auntie. Ellis calls her her oldest friend, her mentor. One of two mothers.

That's the one Lujanne likes best.


End file.
